Hong Kong Transformers Madness Event June 22nd 2017

[griffin]

10.30pm and people were being let into the store... and it was madness.
People pushing into a small corner at the front of the store, grabbing at toys, filling their bags, and rushing to the registers to make purchases to then claim their free toys and freebie items.

Since I was too busy grabbing toys and buying them, I didn't get to take any photos of the rush of people inside the store... but a video of the event can be seen on the HK ToysRUs facebook page here.

What I did take photos of, were all of the Transformers toys in this store. This is why I love this store... it has the biggest range of Transformers toys that I have seen in any store in any country I've been to so far (especially in Australia).


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That's just the temporary front section of the store... this here is the regular section at the back of the store...

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Near the registers at the front of the store, was the redemption counter, for claiming your Barricade, Bumblebee and/or Optimus toys... as well as other freebies of the night (a figure display stand, colour folders, card holders, and Optimus Potato Heads from 2006).



All of the Battle Damaged toys ready to be picked up - 100 each of Bumblebee and Barricade, and 50 of Optimus... and lots of Potato Heads. (I ended up getting six of them, and gave them all to Bladestorm to give to people in HK)


(to be continued....)

[reillyd]

Oh you are SO lucky to be over there right now Bladestorm. Those photos are awesome and give us a vicarious taste of what it must be like. I thought the Optimus Prime cosplay was a statue not a costume! Very cool.

And I see they also have the Primus/Cybertron and Siege on Cybertron sets. I'd kill to be able to buy these, lol. Yes, literally!

[griffin]

I thought the Optimus Prime cosplay was a statue not a costume! Very cool.

And I see they also have the Primus/Cybertron and Siege on Cybertron sets. I'd kill to be able to buy these, lol. Yes, literally!

There was an Optimus statue in the toy area inside the store, but there was also a cosplay Optimus as well outside the store.

They had a lot of the Cybertron toys at first, but they mysteriously seemed to disappear quite quickly, despite not seeing too many people with one outside the store.
The Siege on Cybertron set was a big surprise to me, and very welcome, as I missed the BBTS pre-order.

[Paulbot]

Great pics, and so many TFs on the shelves. Amazing.

I was wondering though, which Prime is this, with the opening cover, at the bottom of this pic?

[aching878]

Saw your little interview too with one of HK more prominent toys news/social media group

[Bladestorm]

Saw your little interview too with one of HK more prominent toys news/social media group

Who was the toy news/social media group?

I saw him being interviewed but couldn't figure out who or what it was for.

For those wanting a bit more video of the store (prior to the Madness event toys being put up on display) and the beautiful Optimus figure I posted some up here in the sightings thread.

[aching878]

Who was the toy news/social media group?

I saw him being interviewed but couldn't figure out who or what it was for.

For those wanting a bit more video of the store (prior to the Madness event toys being put up on display) and the beautiful Optimus figure I posted some up here in the sightings thread.

It was with ToysTVhk

They are an old group in HK that started off in the forums like otca but in recent times branched out to full social media vlog etc, covering all things Toys related from news / unboxing / events etc.

They were there to cover the TF events and i guess someone stood out (literally ) from the crowd https://www.facebook.com/ToysTVhk/vi...7547854344973/

They interviewed others but all in Cantonese , TFmizer Stanley was there too in line, you would know him as well i guess.

[griffin]

Great pics, and so many TFs on the shelves. Amazing.

I was wondering though, which Prime is this, with the opening cover, at the bottom of this pic?

That's the Asia exclusive Shadow Spark Leader Optimus.

[griffin]

(final part)

Twenty minutes later, I had made my first purchases, and obtained a free Bumblebee and Optimus (along with a number of the other freebies mentioned above).

Purchases were put into these really nice paper bags.


These were the plastic folders given with each purchase (the two on the ends, not the middle one).


The figure stand with any purchase made with a Star Card (like the VIP card in Australia). Bladestorm lent me her card, to get six of the figure stands.


The card holders.


The toys I bought on my first run through the store... including several Potato Heads... guarded by my Trypticon toy (which I took with me in my luggage, after just buying it an hour before getting to Brisbane Airport... to tease the fans in HK who still have to wait until July 1st to get one).


After getting a Barricade from someone at the event, I was very lucky to end up with all three Battle Damaged toys. Photos of the three toys out of packaging can be seen here.
(this photo here is actually Bladestorm's toys)


In the next hour, both of us went back into the store for a second round of purchases, and freebies... and filling out many entry forms for the prize drawing at midnight (one entry per HK$500 spent... and we spent a lot between us). I gave half of mine to Bladestorm, since she made all of this possible for me.

Just a few minutes after midnight, everyone gathered around the entrance to the store for the prize drawings.



But first there would be some "special prizes", with a number of big expensive toys given to people who were first to show a particular toy that they just bought. Bladestorm was first when a particular toy was called out that she bought, and won an SDCC Devastator!


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I was at the back of the people here, and there weren't too many who stayed until the midnight drawing. But I think only one person didn't come forward, so most of those entering the draw stuck around.

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Then the prize drawings began.
There were three lots of prizes...
- 8 Deluxe packs (a selection of Deluxe Movie toys and some others, worth at least HK$2000).
- 6 Voyager packs (a selection of Voyager Movie toys and some others, worth at least HK$3000)
- 3 Leader packs (a black chrome Optimus helmet and some other toys, worth at least HK$4000)

One guy must have had so many entries, that his name was called out at least 6 times. After claiming three prizes, he told them to redraw for someone else.

This was someone claiming one of the Voyager packs. Each person would be photographed by the Hasbro photographer (in case they wanted to feature the event on a website or facebook), and a second photographer who gave a mini-polaroid to the winner as a souvenir of the occasion.


This was the Voyager pack that I won (the announcer apparently said in Chinese to the crowd that I was from Australia just for this event - he was telling me in English to smile for the photo, but I was already very tired from the long day and little sleep the night before).
Unfortunately, of all of the toys in this prize pack, I had already bought them... and the big heavy Optimus statue was something I wasn't too interested in, so I gave it to someone who would better appreciate it - a big Optimus fan (Bladestorm). She also didn't have the RC Sqweeks or Grimlock yet, so I gave them to her, and brought the remaining three Voyagers back home with me (to sell or give away).
All in all, the prize pack was probably worth about AU$600, so it was definitely a big prize to win... it was just worth nothing to me though.
I, like most people there, only really wanted the black chrome Optimus Helmet in the Leader prize pack.


At 12.45am, the drawings were over, and everyone left rather quickly... except the Hasbro staff who had a group photo taken inside the store with Optimus.


Just before the display panel was torn down. Four of us who were left were allowed to take home the small "prize pack" signs. I got Megatron, and then wondered how I would get it home on the plane.


Since Bladestorm and I were hovering around the store for a while, the Hasbro people came out and were heading off, when some of them offered to help carry some of our bags for us (we both ended up with more than we could comfortably carry, thanks to the prizes we both won adding to our bag count).
That was so awesome of them (we had spoken to a couple of the important people at the HK Hasbro office during the night... particularly when they found out from Bladestorm that I was from Australia), and they helped us both get all the way to the main street outside the shopping centre, and hailed us both separate taxis.
(I was only 4 blocks away from my hotel, but I was not going to be able to carry all of my stuff back with me.)

The total haul for the night for me.
And this was only just the start of a big 24 hours of Transformers fun for me in Hong Kong, leaving me feeling like I had just been at a convention by the end of it (with this special Hasbro event, heaps of toys bought, a meal the next day at a Transformers themed restaurant, and a Transformers Movie exhibit, plus the exhaustion I get after every BotCon).


The items on the left against the bed-board are the unwanted items or items bought for other people back home.
I didn't end up going to sleep until about 4.30am that morning, and then had to get up about 3 hours later to get ready for the big schedule of events for Friday.